Seeing M22 from the urban twilight zone

Hello, everyone.

Last night I had a very pleasant observing session with my
Sky-Watcher 20cm (7.9") f/6 Dob in what might be called the
"Urban Twilight Zone," since, as Tony Flanders has remarked,
a light-polluted urban site (here about mag 3.5) in effect
remains in astronomical twilight through the night.

When I started around 1940 or so PDT, the sky was blue; but
within ten minutes, looking through the Dob with my 30mm
eyepiece, stars started coming up -- rapidly! By 1951 or so,
I was observing M25, at what I later realized was almost
precisely its transit.

A highlight of the evening was seeing a real "faint fuzzy" in
Sagittarius, a patch or smudge of approximately circular shape
a bit brighter than the background, maybe 10' across. It was
lovely, quite ethereal, and at first I thought it might almost
be a cloud. However, after this spotting at 2008, I saw it
again at 2037 in the same relation to the same asterisms, and
my sketch (2 degree field, 40X) nicely matched what fchart
showed for M22.

At least from my urban observatory, M22 indeed fits a classic
concept of a faint fuzzy: something not too far from the limit
of visual detection, but most awesome to have detected.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter

Lat. 38.566 Long. -121.430

Margo was saying
It was lovely, quite ethereal, and at first I
thought it might almost be a cloud.

Nice report!
It reminds me of my first experience with the Pleiades. When I was
a kid growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, I got into the habit of taking
late night walks. The first time I ever noticed the Pleiades, I thought
they were a tiny puff of smoke that was oddly "cohesive" or something,
(it must not have been the greatest night,) but soon I realized I was
looking at a group of tiny stars. My personal name for them was
"Nebraska," due to the general shape of the cluster. Later, when I was
learning my way around the "real" constellations, I memorized a picture
of the Pleiades from Menzel's "Peterson's Field Guide," and took a look
at them with my father's 7x35 binoculars. BANG! I've been hooked ever
since...
Marty